Our second feature on Movie Week at the World SF Blog is the 6-minute Alive in Jo'burg, by director Neill Blomkamp, a precursor to the director's lauded District 9. Enjoy!
Original Fiction: “The Basics of Flight”, Ch. 7, by Joyce Chng
Apologies again for missing an installment last week - here is chapter seven of Joyce Chng's serial novella for us, The Basics of Flight. THE BASICS OF FLIGHT by Joyce Chng Chapter Seven A Moment Of Lift The Forresters’ house struck Katherine as extremely intriguing. The moment she walked into the warm interior from the... Continue Reading →
MOVIE WEEK AT THE WSNB!
It's movie week here on the World SF Blog - we'll be running trailers and whole genre short films from around the world this week. Tuesday we'll have the next installment in Joyce Chng's serial, The Basics of Flight. But let's start the week! First up we have something of a unique proposition: the Israeli short horror... Continue Reading →
African(?) Science Fiction – Michael A. Burstein on the Africa Controversy
Over at the Apex Blog, Michael A. Burstein is extending the debate started by Norman Spinrad's controversial "Third World Worlds" column in Asimov's. Burstein focuses on American writer Mike Resnick, and his treatment of African themes and settings: Mike loves Africa, and has done more than just go on a safari. Mike has actually gone... Continue Reading →
Chinese Science Fiction News
The recently-launched World Chinese-Language Science Fiction Research Workshop has posted its newsletter for June 2010 and includes various news and reactions regarding Chinese science fiction. Here are some of its news items: Rao Zhonghua, Popular Science Writer and SF Scholar, Dies World Chinese Science Fiction Association Extends Nominations for 2010 “XINGYUN” Chinese Fantasy Awards World... Continue Reading →
Finnish Science Fiction and Fantasy
Over at Wired, Bruce Sterling highlights some science fiction and fantasy from Finland that's available in English. Hannu Rajaniemi, a Finnish writer who has been living in Scotland, made a major three book deal with British Gollancz about a year and a half ago. The first book, “The Quantum Thief”, will be out in September.... Continue Reading →
Abigail Nussbaum on With Both Feet in the Clouds: Fantasy in Hebrew Literature, edited by Hagar Yanai and Danielle Gurevitch
Abigail Nussbaum brings up a lot of points in her analysis of the book With Both Feet in the Clouds. Here's an excerpt: This isn't something that I think about very often, but I live half my life in a foreign language. It's the language I'm writing in right now. My actual, physical life, is... Continue Reading →
The Central European Classics Collection
Penguin Classics has launched their Central European Classics Collection (which are currently 20% off) which features translated works by authors from Central Europe. Here's their list of titles: Thomas Bernhard: Old Masters Karel Čapek: War with the Newts E.M. Cioran: A Short History of Decay György Faludy: My Happy Days in Hell Gyula Krúdy: Life... Continue Reading →
The World Chinese-language Science Fiction Research Workshop
Guangyi Li writes in to mention that Yan Wu, Guangyi Li, and Nathaniel Isaacson has launched a website that focuses on Chinese-language science fiction studies: http://www.chinesescifi.org/. Here's more information from their About Page: 在过去一个世纪中华文明呈现给世界的所有奇迹中，科幻文学的产生和发展，可能是最堪称奇迹的奇迹之一。在这样一个几乎没有西方意义科学传统的文明 中，科幻文学被吸纳、鼓吹、创作、传播，并随中国的时代进程而跌宕起伏。今天，当中国在国际舞台上愈发引人瞩目，源自华夏的文明在世界各地枝繁花茂，以华 文为载体的科幻文学和文化仍然在通向未来的道路上踟蹰。 它在过去有多少鲜为人知的故事，又会有一个怎样的未来？ 从上世纪末开始，一批有志于科幻研究的学者，已经在两岸三地乃至不同的大洲开始了各自独立的探索，许多优秀的成果随之出现。但是，大家仍然感到，缺 乏有效的交流，缺乏诚挚的对话，缺乏能激荡心灵的辩驳。因此，我们发起成立这个科幻研究坊，目的是希望世界各地对华文科幻文学感兴趣的研究者和爱好者能将 智力和思想汇聚于此，分享各自的发现，研讨重要的问题，体验共同的快乐。我们也希望通过这个群体能增进相互之间的友谊，促进资源和人员的交流，并在未来建 立我们自己的独立的实体活动空间。 世界华文科幻研究坊欢迎各位同仁的参与，期望大家能为这个相互启迪的问学之地，跨越文化和地域的温暖家园，带来诗意和深刻！ In the past century among all of Chinese civilization’s marvelous contributions to the... Continue Reading →
Interview with Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv
I interviewed Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv on their novel, The Tel Aviv Dossier, over at SF Signal. Here's an excerpt: What made you decide to set the story in Tel Aviv? What is it about that city that you find interesting? LT: We couldn't pass up the opportunity to entirely destroy it! I think... Continue Reading →
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